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Answering charges of bias Posted: Thursday June 06, 2002 10:19 AM
Good morning, afternoon or evening. Here are my latest replies to some of the e-mails I have received recently. Thanks for your correspondence.
Pedro, After watching your USA v. Portugal pre-game report on CNN, how are you coming to terms with your gratuitously pro-Portugal biased reporting? I remember the CNN anchor as thanking you for your report, "from our unbiased Pedro Pinto."
Dear Nathan, I never said I "expected" Portugal to beat the U.S. in soccer like the U.S. would beat Portugal in basketball. I was just setting up a mismatch idea for the people in the States who don't know a lot about football. And you have to agree with me that it was a huge mismatch on paper. However, I then added that nothing was taken for granted, because upsets do happen and Senegal had already beaten France. Furthermore, at the end of my piece, I stated Portugal had not played in a World Cup since 1986 and could be facing too much pressure to perform. I apologize if I insulted anyone; I was just trying to set things up. Even the American players, who I talked to after the game, joked with me about it.
Hi Pedro, I'm a Brazilian spectator here in the US. I understand that Rivaldo's simulation (a great example of Brazilian "malandragem") is not fair play, but do you agree with his posthumous punishment (by the way, the Turkish athlete's red card was deserved either way)? FIFA has been proud of keeping the game traditional with respect to the refereeing, so isn't his punishment quite contradictory?
Robert, I believe what Rivaldo did was totally unnecessary. He is a professional and should act like it on the pitch. If I were in FIFA's position, I would have fined him and suspended him for a game, to send a message that these kind of things will not be tolerated. Having said that, FIFA should have taken a decision the day after the game, rather than waiting two days.
Now that the U.S. Soccer team has made word headlines with their victory against Portugal, will the U.S. people and news-media recognize and appreciate this win?
I hope so, Giovanni. But you have to realize that in the United States, the sports market is already so congested. There is baseball, American football, basketball, hockey, tennis, golf, NASCAR, even WWF... they all get more ratings than soccer. I would like to see more people in the States have a passion about the "world game," though.
What are your views about the chances of The Super Eagles of Nigeria vis-a-vis other African teams?
The Super Eagles are extremely talented, but I don't believe Nigeria will make it into the next round because there has been too much instability on the sidelines leading up to the World Cup. The constant change of management has left players confused about what they should be doing.
Are you Brazilian or you are from Portugal? What do you thing about Brazilian football?
Hi Ana. I am Portuguese and I enjoy watching Brazilian football. I actually watched a lot of games from the Rio-Sao Paulo tournament this past season and was very impressed with the skill level of all the teams. One thing I noticed is that defenders are not very aggressive. They let the forwards control the ball and start running before they make a move. It is completely different from European football, where defenders come sliding in one second after you've touched it. World Sport's Pedro Pinto will be reporting regularly from South Korea during the World Cup.
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